Chan and Contemplative Practice (Dhyāna and Vipaśyanā-caryā)

If your meditative concentration is sufficient and your views are also sufficient, you should combine them with the stillness of sitting meditation to strengthen your meditative concentration, and then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the Buddha's teachings, contemplating the five aggregates (pañcaskandha). Afterwards, investigate Chan, keeping a questioning doubt of investigation constantly in mind. First eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), then investigate Chan to awaken to the true mind.

The purpose of studying the Dharma is precisely to engage in contemplative practice, and then to realize it. If you cannot engage in contemplative practice, it shows that your power of reflection is not good enough—that is, your meditative concentration is not good enough. Without the meditative concentration of reflective cultivation, it cannot contribute much to realizing the Dharma. Therefore, you should learn to cultivate meditative concentration, so that dhyāna can play its proper role.